Top 100 John Madden Quotes
#1. When your arm gets hit, the ball is not going to go where you want it to.
John Madden
#2. Since 1981, I've spent every Thanksgiving Day broadcasting a game, and it is one of my favorite days. You can say, 'Woe is me, I never get to be part of the tradition,' or you can say, 'Heck, we've got our own tradition, and it's pretty good.'
John Madden
#3. I was an old tackle riding around talking to people about sports. Like I've said to a lot of people over the years, 'I only go where old tackles go, and if an old tackle does not belong there, I'm not going.'
John Madden
#4. I always used to tell my players that we are here to win! And you know what, Al? When you don't win, you lose.
John Madden
#5. People say, 'Is broadcasting the same as coaching?' I say, 'Hell, no.' Coaching, you win and lose. Broadcasting, you don't win and lose. Coaching was a lot bigger than broadcasting.
John Madden
#6. Baseball has better opening days and All-Star Games than the N.F.L. does. Ours stink.
John Madden
#7. At the end of the game the team with the most points on the board is going to win.
John Madden
#8. The quarterback has to get rid of the ball quickly, so there's not a lot of time to make moves to gain separation.
John Madden
#9. There definitely needs to be water on the sidelines for these players, but I also had some Gatorade just in case they were allergic to the water or vice versa.
John Madden
#10. Having been in football all my life as a player and a coach and having been on the sideline, I think the closer we can get to bringing people what it's like standing and watching the game on the sideline, with a better view, would be the perfect situation for television football.
John Madden
#11. I'm not afraid of flying; I just fear I'm going to die. I think I'm - vulnerable. I admit it. I don't fly. I got claustrophobia. I don't go in high buildings. I don't do those things. I'm just myself, whatever that is.
John Madden
#12. A consulting position might work in another profession, but not in pro football. There's no such thing. They give a guy a parking spot and put his name up as a consultant, and in six months, they erase the name.
John Madden
#13. There was a hidden narrative I felt we could get into, It's about an accessible world. Family and relationships are accessible subjects.
John Madden
#15. Don't do anything great if you can't handle the congratulations.
John Madden
#16. It's a big deal. ABC and MNF are a big part of NFL history, and it's going to end with the Super Bowl (on ABC). You can't say you're not looking forward to it .
John Madden
#17. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I never really had a job. I was a football player, then a football coach, then a football broadcaster. It's been my life. Pro football has been my life since 1967. I've enjoyed every part of it. Never once did it ever feel like work.
John Madden
#18. I've got five grandkids. They play baseball, they play football, they play basketball. I go to all the games. You always have that urge to say something when you're watching them. But I've learned to keep it to myself. I've blurted out some things and embarrassed myself.
John Madden
#19. I was a coach, and I put a lot of education and experience into coaching.
John Madden
#20. Any defensive coordinator is worried about two things: a running quarterback and a deep ball. You know, don't get beat deep and don't let the quarterback run, because a big part of your defense can't account for the quarterback as a runner, so he gets a free run.
John Madden
#21. Sometimes you can be one of the best, but you don't accept that if you don't get the ring or win the Super Bowl. There's a lot of good teams between the Super Bowl winner and other teams. Once the Super Bowl is over, we lump everyone into the other 31, and that's not fair.
John Madden
#22. It's been the video game ever since I got out of coaching. Even when I was an announcer, fewer and fewer people remembered me as 'Coach,' and as the years went on, people just started knowing me from the game.
John Madden
#23. There's a lot of letters in Ladanian Tomlinson
John Madden
#24. Every time I go to the theater, there's something about the atmosphere, seeing something unfold live in front of an audience, that you can't get out of your system.
John Madden
#25. Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to a football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback's idea.
John Madden
#26. Sports has always been a pass-through. You pay for something, and then you pass it through to television, you pass it through to advertisers, or you pass it through to season-ticket holders, luxury boxes and then the fans. Then it all adds up, and you take in more than you pass out.
John Madden
#27. To me, discipline in football occurs on the field, not off it.
John Madden
#28. In Oakland, Al Davis was a genius. We had Ron Wolff there, too, and he was a genius. There was no room for me to be a genius.
John Madden
#29. I tried golf for a while, but I wasn't very good at it, so I didn't play a lot of golf. I enjoy all sports, not just football. I like basketball, baseball, and I got into the World Cup. So really, sports in general are my life, and football specifically.
John Madden
#30. Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.
John Madden
#31. Playing in this nice weather really makes me remember all the times I got stung by a bee.
John Madden
#32. I never professed to be perfect. I do something wrong or something stupid, I laugh at myself.
John Madden
#33. Justin Smith was one of the most underrated players in the NFL for what he did. He would sacrifice and do the dirty work, then someone else would clean up off it.
John Madden
#34. You can't win a game if you don't score any points.
John Madden
#35. If someone remembers me as a coach, they still call me 'Coach,' but if they know me for the video game, they just call me 'Madden.'
John Madden
#36. Nothing jazzes me up like football. I've acquired more passion of the years, not less. Not to love it wouldn't make sense.
John Madden
#37. Mark Brunell usually likes to soak his balls before a rainy game.
John Madden
#38. The defense should be expecting a run or a pass here.
John Madden
#39. The best thing about getting older is knowing history. The longer you live, the longer you have been in a sport, the more you know, and the more you know where things started.
John Madden
#40. That's the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl.
John Madden
#41. If a guy doesn't work hard and doesn't play well, he can't lead anything. All he is, is a talker.
John Madden
#42. One of the biggest gaps in sports is the difference between the winning and losing teams of the Super Bowl. They don't invite the losing team to the White House. They don't have parades for them. They don't throw confetti on them.
John Madden
#44. The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.
John Madden
#45. I would have all my offensive linemen wrestle if I could.
John Madden
#46. You wouldn't do something for a receiver to catch the ball if the quarterback couldn't throw it.
John Madden
#47. The greatest gap in sports is between the winner and the loser of the Super Bowl. The winner has confetti, parades, rings, the whole thing. The loser puts his head down and goes to his house.
John Madden
#48. In order for this team to win the game, the quarterback has to throw the ball.
John Madden
#49. Football isn't nuclear physics, but it's not so simple that you can make it simple. It takes some explaining to get it across.
John Madden
#50. I respect coaches; I respect what good coaches do. I know that you don't learn to be a coach in an hour and a half.
John Madden
#51. Thursday night football is here to stay. So we're looking at ways to make it safer. Now they're playing division games, so you limit travel. Now the question is, should you play Sunday night before a Thursday night?
John Madden
#52. The only things that smell good are fat and sugar. Tofu being boiled doesn't smell good. Anything that smells good is fattening.
John Madden
#53. I like to hear about what people do. That's more interesting than talking about what the hell I do.
John Madden
#54. Knowing his coach likes him is more important to a player than anything else. To me, it was important to be able to chew out a player for screwing up and for him to accept it because he knew I liked him anyway.
John Madden
#55. Al Davis has been the biggest influence in my professional football life. I mean, he was a guy that gave me an opportunity, one, to get into professional football in 1967 as an assistant coach, and then at the age of 32, giving me the opportunity to be the head coach.
John Madden
#56. He would have scored a touchdown if he hadn't been tackled right there.
John Madden
#57. They'll score if they can just get into the endzone.
John Madden
#58. It's a lot easier to get a suit than it is to get a coach.
John Madden
#59. If you win a Super Bowl before you're fired, you're a genius, and everyone listens to you. But a coach is just a guy whose best class in grammar school was recess and whose best class in high school was P.E. I never thought I was anything but a guy whose best class was P.E.
John Madden
#60. There is a difference in being in shape and being in football shape. Any one can out on the field and run around , but once you start getting hit and have to get up then you find out the difference between being in shape and football shape.
John Madden
#61. Whenever you talk about a Mike Shanahan offense, you're always going to be talking about his offense.
John Madden
#62. There's so many kids who only know me from the video game.
John Madden
#63. Here's a guy who when he runs, he moves faster.
John Madden
#64. I would never bet against Peyton Manning. You know about the age and the neck and the strength. But I had George Blanda, and as he got older, he got smarter, and he just got rid of the ball quicker. I watch Peyton, and I see George Blanda.
John Madden
#66. Discipline in football occurs on the field, not off it. Discipline is knowing what you're supposed to do and doing it as best you can.
John Madden
#67. When you have great players, playing great, well that's great football!
John Madden
#68. Discipline is knowing what you're supposed to do and doing it as best you can ... On third down and short yardage, the Raiders don't jump offside. That's discipline - not a coat and tie, not a clean shave.
John Madden
#69. Never mind the horse's blind, just load the wagon.
John Madden
#70. The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break.
John Madden
#71. If you see a defense team with dirt and mud on their backs they've had a bad day.
John Madden
#72. They're on the right road, but there's a long way to go on concussions, not only in the NFL, but college football, high school football and all football.
John Madden
#73. When I got out of coaching, I had taught a class at the University of California, an extension class on football for fans. I was looking for tools. I was showing them films. I was going to write a textbook. Trip Hawkins came to me about making it a game for computers.
John Madden
#74. I've often said, 'If I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny.' Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders, you think about Ken Stabler.
John Madden
#75. If you lose your best cornerback and punter, I'd say that's a double loss.
John Madden
#76. If you look at tailgating, everyone does it. It's for everyone who likes to cook outdoors. It could be a 4th of July picnic.
John Madden
#77. Any time you get a new running back, whether it's a rookie or hasn't played a lot, that's the first thing you test, is their pass protection. That's big.
John Madden
#78. Both of my sons used to coach high school football. When they started, I'd say things I shouldn't have. So I learned my lesson.
John Madden
#79. When the going gets tough, I'm not always sure what you do. I'm not saying that I know how to fix everything when the going gets tough, but I do know this: when the going goes tough, you don't quit. And you don't fold up. And you don't go in the other direction.
John Madden
#80. I get a certain feeling when I go to Lambeau field in Green Bay. Soldier field in Chicago is special to me. Those are the places that I really like. The stadiums.
John Madden
#81. Usually, the team that turns the ball over less will hold on to the ball more
John Madden
#82. Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear.
John Madden
#84. I've never eaten just a few bites of things I liked in my life.
John Madden
#85. I don't know that the referee can be watching holding on the offensive line and get back to the quarterback. I think watching the quarterback is a full-time job.
John Madden
#86. It takes about three times as long to explain to someone why you won't give them an autograph as it does to actually give them an autograph.
John Madden
#87. I never watched TV because I was always doing a game. I didn't have any experience to be home watching games. I didn't know how to do it. Brent Musburger and those guys could sit and watch every game and know the scores. And I was amazed and said, 'I'd like to have something like that someday.'
John Madden
#88. When people watch football, they're looking for fun things.
John Madden
#89. Sometimes we think videogames are just games for kids, and then once they get out of grammar school or high school, they never play again, but that's when they really start playing.
John Madden
#90. I wasn't saying that in a sense that I didn't plan on scoring any goals. This won't happen again. It would be nice if it did, but it's reality.
John Madden
#92. I'd like to work with kids in special education - younger kids.
John Madden
#93. You got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.
John Madden
#94. I've always said winning's the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record, everything stinks, and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.
John Madden
#95. Real frontier-busting math explores new worlds ... If you can communicate that experience, somewhere between math and uncertainty, life experience provides the balance.
John Madden
#96. I would never be one to critique the announcers when I watched games. I try to watch the play and listen to the broadcasters and what they are pointing out. I was never one to say this one was good or bad.
John Madden
#97. Jim Harbaugh has done a great job of coaching in the NFL no matter how you put it.
John Madden
#98. Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.
John Madden
#99. Even when I was a little kid, I hated to dress up. I hated to put on regular shoes. I wanted to play all the time. I hate to wear any kind of coat or sweater. I've never liked hot. I've never liked to be warm.
John Madden
#100. We need the quarterbacks. It's a passing league and a quarterback-driven league. We need the Peyton Mannings in football uniforms out there playing - the Tom Bradys, the Drew Breeses, the Philip Riverses - we need those guys instead of them standing on the sideline.
John Madden
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